There are some good foreign food restaurants in Fukuoka, but sometimes it’s hard to find places to buy foreign ingredients or the ultimate comfort food to ease any bouts of homesickness. Here are a few stores in Fukuoka and on the Internet where you can get a taste of home.
Green Deli or Deli, found in many malls across the prefecture in cluding Canal City in Tenjin. You can purchase a variety of foreign chocolate and sweets not commonly found in convenience stores, Thai and Korean food ingredients, and some Mexican food like salsa and tacos. http://www.deli.co.jp/list/kyushu.html
Sony Plaza has a selection of snack foods including sweets, chocolates, and potato chips. Some stores have cereals, baking mixes, and condiments from around the world. http://www.plazastyle.com/shop/shoplist/plazastyle.html#chugoku
Colet Izutsuya (Kokura), Izutsuya, and Iwataya usually have food floors with a small section of non-Japanese goods. Colet Izutsuya grocery store section provides whole-wheat spaghetti, jars of olives, hard to find cheeses, pasta sauce from Italy, and Jasmine rice among many other things.
Kaldi is a specialty coffee store but offers a wide variety of foreign goods like dried fruits, imported wine, Mexican food, Thai food (including coconut milk 400ml 207yen) and a spice and candy selection. They even cater to the non-Americans out there, with Ribena, maple syrup (250ml 861yen), and Vegemite (378yen 220ml). Don’t forget to check out the freezers for a variety of bagels and tortillas. http://www.kaldi.co.jp/store/index.html
Don Quixote for foreign food as well as other foreign products. http://www.donki.com/shop/index_en.php?lang=en&shopid
Sunny (Grocery store) carries many ingredients needed for Mexican and Southeast Asian cooking, as well as a small organic foods section with some imported cereals and other items. http://www.seiyu.co.jp/CGI/shop/search.cgi
Youme Town Kurume (and most Youme Towns throughout the prefecture) has many import liquors and a decent import snack aisle with a large section of foreign chocolate and candy.
Backerei & Konditorei Sailer is a little out of the way, but well worth the journey. The Austrian owner of this bakery makes fresh German-style pretzels (¥130), classic Kaiser Semmel rolls (¥50) and heavy loaves of rye bread (from ¥250). If that wasn’t enough, there are ready-made sausage and cheese sandwiches, cakes and buttery pastries. You can eat in at a small, attached coffee shop, or take your goodies away. Take bus #55 from Tenjin Solaria Stage-mae ??????????? to Terazuka?? (30 minutes). 2-1-5 Nagaoka, Minami-ku, Fukuoka. 092-551-7077. 7am-8pm.
Costco is a discount warehouse store, and somewhat of a mecca to the foreign food junkie. It has a bakery, fresh fish and meat, alcohol, and a lot of foreign foods. Many of the products are Costco’s own brand, Kirkland. You cannot purchase anything if you’re not a member, but members can bring up to two guests with them. If you are already a member, your card is valid in Japan. If you’re not, Gold Star Membership is available for individuals. The Gold Star Membership is ¥4,200 (incl. tax) per year, which includes a household card. You’ll have to bring your ID (driver’s license, passport, etc.) to the membership counter when you apply for membership. You can pay by cash, AmEx card or the Costco Orico co-branded card. By car take the city expressway north. It will branch right toward Kasuya and the Kyushu Expressway. After passing under the expressway, stay left, and turn left onto route 35. http://www.costco.co.jp/eng/index.htm
Online Shopping
There are plenty of options for buying foreign food on the Internet. The prices are usually pretty reasonable and there are even web sites dedicated to supplying food from particular countries and for people with particular dietary needs.
If Costco is too hard to get to, you can purchase Costco goods from www.theflyingpig.com. They stock foods like Einstein Brother’s bagels (12 for ¥996), Quaker old fashioned oats (4.5-lb for ¥1,786) and Act II microwave popcorn (28 bags, ¥1,596). They also sell kitchen equipment, electrical goods and more. You can pay at a post office or bank (with a post office or bank money transfer), by credit card, or cash on delivery (COD). They deliver to your home, and you can generally expect to receive your order 48 to 72 hours after you pay. However there will probably be a mark up on any food you buy (making it more expensive than if you bought it straight from a Costco shop).
Here are the shipping costs:
First box — ¥945
Second box — ¥735
Third and subsequent boxes — ¥525
Frozen surcharge — ¥420 per box
Cool surcharge — ¥210 per box
Another option is the Foreign Buyers Club (FBC). Go to www.fbcusa.com/eng/ to purchase hard to find foods. There are two different “stores” on the site. The Deli and Learning Center ships from the FBC Kobe shop, and can deliver in 5-7 days. You can buy Items from all over the world including cheese, turkey, lamb, tortillas, US educational products, household cleaners, books for Japan survival and over 50 US magazines. Over 40,000 items are available through the General Store, but they ship straight from the US so delivery will take 31-36 days.
You can pay by bank transfer, postal transfer, credit card or cash on delivery. Instructions on how to do this are in the Payment options section of the FAQ’s. Membership is ¥1,000 yen per year. If you’re not a member, 5% is added to your order subtotal.
Deli and learning center shipping costs:
Basic shipping — ¥490
Cool items — plus ¥500
Frozen items — plus ¥500.
Free shipping on orders over ¥10,000.
Shipping costs for the General Store:
Basic shipping — ¥500
Orders under ¥10,000 — ¥490
Orders ¥10-30,000 — plus ¥990.
Free shipping on orders over ¥30,000.
Here are some other sites that deliver to Fukuoka.
Azhar Halal Foods (Indonesian/Malaysian food. The “real” shop is in Fukuoka)
http://mall.azhar.jp/ihf/mise
Great Aussie Food (online from Australia with delivery to Japan)
http://www.greataussiefood.com.au/
Isuramu-nasuriin (online shop with food from Iran/Pakistan/Turkey/Malaysia/Indonesia/Saudi Arabia/Jordan/Syria)
http://nasuriin.easy-magic.com/user/
Kimchee House (the “real” shop is in Fukuoka)
http://www.kimuchi-house.com/
Philippines Market (online shop from Fukuoka)
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~phil/index.html
Totally vegetarian food is available at http://www.alishan-organic-center.com and at http://www.warabe.co.jp ( warabemura@aol.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). They don’t have an English catalogue on the web page, but you can request one to be sent to you.